LAHM Blog

Quilts tell tales: The Los Altos History Museum and Day Worker Center of Mountain View are teaming up to present “Traveling Stitches: Quilts Made at the Day Worker Center of Mountain View.” The exhibit runs until April 29.

The project invited individuals at the Day Worker Center to create quilt blocks, and 140 women and men took part. Each block illustrates the hopes, dreams, memories, stories and ideas of these individuals. The show is curated by Naomi Zamir, who transformed these panels into seven vibrant, colorful quilts.

An opening reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 18. There will be a panel discussion on Immigration in California at 7 p.m. March 22 at the Los Altos Youth Center, 1 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos.

The Los Altos History Museum’s latest exhibition, “Instinct Extinct: The Great Pacific Flyway,” is scheduled to open Thursday and run through April 1.

The display chronicles the story of birds – their beauty, their biology, their migrations and their ecosystems. Curated by the professors from the UC Davis School of Design, the exhibition is inspired by the natural instinct of birds to travel thousands of miles up and down the western edge of North America. According to organizers, it “celebrates the beauty of flight and the magnificence of avian wing design” through whimsical artistic installations and delves into the loss of habitat the has threatened….cont.

Los Altos is the rare city in the Santa Clara Valley to have a historical house at the center of its civic life.

The holidays are an excellent time to remember that the J. Gilbert Smith House, adjacent to the Los Altos main library, was not always a museum. For most of its history, it was a family home where the Smiths lived, worked and celebrated the holidays.

Gilbert Smith built the house after spending several years during his 20s riding his bicycle back and forth to Stanford University, where he worked as a carpenter on some of the early dormitories. His income made it possible for his brother Harlan and sister Elinor to earn Stanford degrees. By the time he was 25, Smith had studied at Stanford, too. But he wanted something else.

In 1901, Smith purchased land on the country lane that became San Antonio Road.

“The following year, I had planted five acres in apricots and had started construction of my home,” he later recalled.

Smith pitched a tent amid the owl clover and lived on the property until the house was completed in 1905. He was proud to say that it survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake without damage – though the temblor did knock down his windmill…cont.

Saturday, December 9, 2017, 1-3pm, learn how to fold festive origami ornaments with May Matsuzaki, Susan Nakamura and Janice Yasutake, instructors from the Japanese America Museum of San Jose. This is a Free family event and open to the whole family! More details here

It’s time to shop, mingle, sip tea and ogle the decorations — all for good causes. These fundraising festivities not only put you in a holiday frame of mind, but they also help preserve the Bay Area’s historic homes, fund museum programs and support countless charities. Reminder: Early reservations are a must.

Nov. 15: History Museum, Los Altos

Take part in “Catch the Spirit” at the Los Altos History Museum on Nov. 15 with a guided tour of the J. Gilbert Smith History House, a historic property that will be decorated for a 1930s Christmas. Listen to talks by local authors; shop in the boutiques; and enjoy refreshments from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free; 51 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos; www.losaltoshistory.org.

See what SF/Arts curator Christian L. Frock had to say about I Want the Wide American Earth:

“Organized and traveled by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, this exhibition considers how Asian Pacific Americans have participated in and been cultivated by this country’s history, from a variety of historical vantage points, including the California Gold Rush, the development of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Civil War and Hawaiian statehood.”

Michelle Griego discusses the Museum’s new exhibition, “I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story” with Executive Director, Elisabeth Ward, and Historian and Author, Connie Young Yu. View it here

The exhibition celebrates the Museum’s 40th anniversary as a community organization and recognizes the many volunteers, exhibits, programs and fundraisers that have made the Los Altos History Museum a unique and welcoming community resource.

It looks back at the Museum’s beginnings, explores the many stories created over the years and provides a peek into plans for its future. Documents, photographs and objects take visitors on a journey that looks at the many facets that have made the Museum and its programs possible.

The historic J. Gilbert Smith House is the perfect setting to tell this story, as it was home to the Museum in its early days. The exhibit runs from September 23, 2017 to December 31, 2017, providing ample opportunity to help celebrate its accomplishments and imagine exciting possibilities for its future.